Ex-ANC man Errol Velile Present and co-accused back in court on heist charges

The bail hearing for four men – including axed ANC branch secretary Errol Velile Present – has resumed in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Errol Velile PresentImage: Facebook

Present and the other two co-accused stand accused of being involved in a cash-in-transit in Dobsonville‚ Soweto. They were initially charged with armed robbery – but charges of attempted murder and possession of hijacked motor vehicles were added when the group appeared in court earlier this month.

Previously‚ one of the accused‚ Zakhele Zondi‚ had been confident that police did not have a case against him.

He said that witnesses of the heist who had been called to come and identify the suspects in an identifying parade had failed to point him out‚ and that he also believed that there were no fingerprints lifted from the vehicles that were used in the heist. He had further submitted that police had not found a cent of the R250‚000 that they were alleged to have taken in the heist.

Zondi‚ who has a previous conviction of attempted murder‚ is requesting that the court release him on R3‚000 bail.

On Friday‚ Zondi‚ taking to the stand under cross-examination in the bail application‚ told the court that there was a link between him and Present: the two‚ he said‚ were cousins through their mothers‚ who are siblings.

Zondi also confirmed that he knew the two other accused‚ but elected not to say how he knew them. Among some of the questions that Zondi refused to answer was when last he had seen Present prior to them being arrested and brought to Dobsonville.